IAHL Corporation (IAHL)

[energybuyer]

A move higher in the benchmark diesel price used for most fuel surcharges may prove short-lived, because oil futures markets have resumed their downward slide.

The Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration average weekly retail diesel price rose 3.5 cents a gallon, effective Monday, to $3.863. It was only the fourth increase in the past 17 weeks.

It came after oil markets showed some reaction in the past two weeks of trading to the continued interruption in shipping through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a disruption that forces oil to stay on the water longer than it would have otherwise. In classic economics analysis, that would be considered bullish for the price of any commodity, because it effectively works to lock oil into inventories for a longer period of time.